Yesterday
by SecondAlternateLieutenant
Summary: Grandparents!Makorra! Short fluffy look into them as grandparents, adorable if I do say so myself.


Darn kids always messing things up. They didn't have any sense of responsibility they never did a damned thing that wasn't 'fun' or 'exciting'. They needed to get a healthy dose of reality and learn to pick up their things after they were done. Their parents had been raised better than this, they should have been teaching their kids to be as respectful as they'd been taught, but no. As a kid he'd been responsible for his baby brother by age eight and made sure they were both alright until they were both safely married and happy. But here he was, picking up after the children.

"Grandpa?" The soft little voice barely preceded the tugging on his pant leg.

"Katara." Mako spared a grin for his youngest granddaughter.

"Why are you unhappy?" Little Katara's bright blue eyes looked just like her grandmother's, just like Korra's. It never ceased to amaze him how those eyes had translated from Korra to their son and then to his little girl.

"I'm not unhappy." Mako leaned up and rested against the doorframe for a moment. He'd been bent over for much longer than he should have at his age, and everything he'd done as a younger man was starting to catch up with him. "Ok, maybe a little." He grinned at the little girl as she clutched her stuffed saber-toothed moose-lion cub in one arm. "Your cousins and brothers didn't pick up their toys."

"Oh." Katara looked at the lawn. "I'll help, Grandpa!" She started to dart around as fast as her three year old legs could take her to help her grandfather. Mako grinned at her helpful attitude and helped her stow most of the toys into their proper places. The worst part about the toys being left out is that it had been Korra that let the boys go off with her to Air Temple Island instead of cleaning up first, leaving Mako and Katara the only two left.

"Thank you." Mako grabbed her and smiled as she giggled and hugged him back. "Want to help me make dinner?"

"Yeah!" Katara gripped her moose-lion in one arm and the other held tightly around his neck while he walked slowly to the house and into the kitchen. "Whatcha going to make?" she asked as he set her on her feet and pulled out a frying pan.

"I'm going to fry up some chickenpig with noodles and vegetables." Mako told her patiently. "Do you want to watch?"

"Yeah!" Katara bounced under his feet until he picked her up and set her on the counter where she sat and grinned at him. It took her less than five minutes to lose interest in watching him cook and start to chatter about other things to her grandfather. "Grandpa do you love Gran Gran?"

"I love your Gran Gran very much." Mako promised Katara with a smile.

"Oh good." Katara beamed at him. "Grandpa, tell me how you met Gran-Gran again."

"She snuck into the Pro-Bending arena to see the match; your Uncle Bolin helped her out with security and then brought her to our locker room." Mako smiled while he stirred dinner. Katara adored hearing this story and he would tell her it at least once a week. "Then after the match she asked to learn Uncle Bo's Earthbending technique and we found out she was the Avatar."

"And then you got married and lived happily ever after!" Katara grinned, making Mako laugh.

"Not quite, sweetheart." He pressed an affectionate kiss to her forehead.

The house nearly rattled when a stream of children between the ages of ten and five poured back in, followed by their grandmother. Katara immediately held out her arms and Korra walked over, pulling the little girl against her in a warm hug. "Gran Gran."

"Hey sweetheart." Korra grinned at her, the shadow of the teenager she'd been all those years before shining brightly in her blue eyes. "Have you been keeping Grandpa company?"

"Yep, we made dinner." Katara announced with a grin. "I helped!"

"Did you?" Korra looked to her husband.

"She did." Mako grinned as they exchanged looks that communicated how 'helpful' the four year old had been by watching and listening to him tell stories of them as teenagers. "It'll be ready soon."

"Go play with your cousins for a little." Korra put Katara on her feet and pushed her for the door. The little girl sprinted into the next room leaving her grandparents alone. "Hey." Korra wrapped an arm around his waist. "They're wearing me out."

"They're wearing you out?" Mako lifted a brow at his wife. She was still beautiful, though her dark hair was now white and she tied it differently now that it was a light color. She weighed a little more and her skin was aged, wrinkles covered her face, but she was still his beautiful wife.

"A little." Korra wrinkled her nose at him. She would still never admit to any kind of weakness. "The boys wanted to see the Arena."

"They left their toys out."

"Oh, they're kids." Korra rolled her eyes. "I suppose you and Katara put them away?"

"Yes." Mako frowned.

"You did that with their parents." Korra laughed and dodged him as he went to swipe at her. "Our children." She shrugged. "Sometimes I can't believe they're grown. They have their own children."

"Me either." Mako smiled. It didn't feel like it had been nearly thirty years since their son was born. Now he had three children of his own not to mention several nieces and nephews.

"Grandpa!" Four small boys of varying heights rushed into their kitchen. "Grandpa did you really get a hat trick in pro-bending?"

"Did Gran Gran get one too?"

"Did you really arrest a triad leader all by yourself?"

"Did you ever have to chase the bad guys?"

"When did Uncle Bo win the championship?"

"Whoa!" Korra laughed and held up both of her hands to quiet their grandchildren. "Grandpa's finishing dinner then we can ask him a hundred questions." She directed. "Go wash up!" She ordered and they split from the room quickly.

"Why do they follow your orders immediately?" Mako laughed as she started to pull out dishes to serve on. "Even with the kids you were the softie."

"I'm the fun parent." Korra corrected. "Which means they're willing to listen to me when I do tell them to do things."

"And I get to punish them." Mako rolled his eyes. "Why would that ever change?" He grabbed her around her waist and kissed her, laughing.

"I don't know, City Boy, nothing ever changes." Korra smiled up at him, all warmth in the nickname she'd given him all those years ago.

"I love you." Mako murmured and gathered her up for a soft kiss.

"I love you." Korra replied simply and moved into the next room to lasso the children into sitting around the huge table. Mako managed to get all of them fed over the following hour, giving him and Korra only a few minutes to eat themselves before getting them into the living room. There was a short hour left before their parents were going to come pick them up, the weekend with their grandparents was coming to an end.

"Grandpa, can you tell us the story of how you got that Hat Trick in probending again?" Kotetsu asked earnestly, leaning up on Mako's knee and looked up with bright blue eyes.

"Alright." Mako pulled Kotetsu into his lap with a grunt of strain. The little boy was getting almost too big for him to pick up, but that never deterred him. "Your Uncle Bo and our teammate Hasook were playing the Golden Temple Tigerdillos…"

"I thought Gran Gran was on your team!"

"Not yet." Korra smiled, cuddling little Katara in her arms while her cousins listened intently to Mako's story. "I was watching from the sidelines."

"Anyway." Mako took the story back. "It was the third round; we'd already lost the first and scraped the second, when Hasook," to this day Korra could detect annoyance in her husband's voice when he mentioned his former teammate, "made a big error and was knocked into Uncle Bo, both of them fell into the drink." The kids were staring at him with wide eyes. They'd all heard this story before, but they paid attention every single time. "I was the only one left, facing all three of the Tigerdillos." This was easily Mako's favorite part of the story. "They were all firing at me at once, the Earth discs flying at my head, flames and water all coming at me. I had to think fast, I couldn't let Bo down."

"I started dodging their attacks one by one, I had to make sure I won this match, so much was riding on it." Mako grinned at the memories. "I dodged their attacks, but I was back in zone three, so I didn't have very far to go before I was off the edge and into the water myself." Korra was grinning, but he knew she hadn't been grinning back then. "I dodged a few more attacks and followed one with an attack of my own, getting their water-bender off the arena. Then I had to fight their fire-bender and their Earth-bender at the same time, I got a well placed shot at their fire-bender and he slammed into the rails before flying off the platform."

"Whoa." The boys had inched closer and closer to their grandfather as he told the story, none of them noticed their parents had slipped into the house and were standing in the next room, listening to their father tell the story.

"Their earthbender was left and he was quaking in his boots." Mako grinned. "There was this huge cloud from his discs meeting my flames so he couldn't see. I'd pushed him back to zone three, so I jumped through it and with one good hit, BAM!" The kids all jumped at his sudden exclamation. "Off the platform and we won the match!"

"That's so cool!" One of the older boys leapt up and punched the air with his fist.

"Was the first time I heard it." The voice of his father had him turning with a grin.

"Dad! Grandpa had a _hat trick._" He emphasized that like it was the greatest thing in the world.

"Yeah, and so did Gran Gran." Ryu pulled Katara into his arms as his son's jaw dropped. "But you're going to have to wait for that story."

"That wasn't nice." Korra laughed at her eldest child.

"They need something to look forward to." Ryu grinned cheekily at his mother while cuddling his unconscious daughter against his chest.

"Come on kids." His wife was rolling her eyes at them from the doorway. "We're taking all of you home."

"Where's Mommy?" One of the younger boys clung to Kishi.

"We're taking you to her." Kishi smiled. "Uncle Ryu and I volunteered to bring you all home."

"Good luck." Korra smiled and helped her son and daughter-in-law usher the children to their coats and shoes and then got the lot of them out the door and on their way back to their homes and parents. "You love that story." Korra accused softly when the house was empty again, only the two of them were left.

"What?" Mako frowned, not quite remembering what she was talking about. "My Hat Trick? Of course. You love to tell yours." He wrapped his arm around her waist. "Or when you knocked out Tahno in that tie-breaker during the finals."

"He always wanted a rematch." Korra grinned smugly as they walked for the back of their house. "Especially after I gave him back his bending."

"You should've." Mako grinned as he pushed the door open for them. "You would've beaten him twice."

"Which is why I didn't need to fight him again." Korra laughed and looked up at him. "But I do love it when you get all feisty and jealous."

"I'm not jealous." Mako frowned at her.

"Sure you're not." Korra sat on the back porch swing with him. "So your eye doesn't twitch every time you mention his name to this day?"

"No." Mako glowered at his wife. She was lucky he loved her or he'd have hit her a long time ago.

"Liar." Korra rested on his chest, lacing her fingers in his. They sat in the quiet of the early evening together for a while, watching the sky darken after the sun had set. They'd go in after the stars came out as they always did. "Do you regret leaving pro-bending?"

"No." Mako looked at her in surprise. It had been over forty years since he'd done that and she'd never once asked. "It wasn't a steady pay, and I …" The admission was a long time coming, but they'd already raised children together. "I wanted to have a family." He smiled at her. "I wanted to get married, to have children. With you." He grinned at her. "I'm not going to lie; it was always with you in mind."

"But with pro-bending…"

"I was happy, true." Mako smiled. "But it was a way off the streets. Being a police officer was more fulfilling, I helped people. Kids like me." He grinned at her. "And despite how insane a few of those years were, I wouldn't do it differently."

"Even when the kids were out of control and I had to be in the Fire Nation?" Korra grinned up at him, all mischief in those blue eyes. She was aging, that was true, but her eyes were as bright as the first day they'd met. He knew they had years left together, but he cherished all of the years they'd had so far. Their children, their grandchildren. They'd likely live to see great-grandchildren; they weren't too old for that to be a possibility and he was excited for more new experiences with Korra.

But while tomorrow was promising, it never hurt to look back at their yesterdays.


End file.
